EA Roadshows and Vote
Dear Members,
Over the past couple of weeks, your EA delegates have been working hard to ensure that the drafting of the new enterprise agreement is finalised and that all of our hard-won claims are in there and no unexpected changes have been made to existing EA clauses. Because the agreement is now one enterprise agreement, there has been a significant amount of drafting work required to reformat the document.
Management had planned to do roadshows this week to begin the process mandated by the Fair Work Act to explain the terms of the enterprise agreement to members prior to putting it to a vote. To do that, the final enterprise agreement had to be completed and sent out to all members.
Unfortunately, due to delays attributable to the Crown Solicitor in the drafting of the wages clause, the final EA has not yet been settled. As we can all appreciate, getting the wages clause right is of vital importance to each and every member.
We are continuing to push for members to be sent the final agreement before Christmas to give us a proper opportunity to read it and understand it. We are then asking Management to set roadshows for early in the new year, with a vote expected in the week commencing 16 January 2023. As soon as we get information on the schedule for the roadshows, we’ll share it with members.
Some good news, Management have agreed to make the $4,500 payable at the time of a YES vote, rather than on approval by the Fair Work Commission (FWC). That could mean that members will be seeing money hit their accounts before February 2023. Then a further backpay payment (from 1 May 2022 to the date of approval) will be payable when the agreement is approved by the FWC.
Keep an eye on your emails for further updates.
In unity,
RTBU NSW
Issued & authorised by Alex Claassens, Secretary, Rail, Tram and Bus Union – NSW Branch
Level 4, 321 Pitt Street,
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 92642511
nswho@rtbu-nsw.asn.au
www.rtbu-nsw.asn.au
20 December 2022